Cap’n Ken’s Homespun Wisdom

So in hopes of getting their merger to go through, Sirius and XM are now pitching the idea of ala carte packaging of channels as a subscription option. As stupid as the idea of buying TV channels ala carte (ads and carry fees still pay the bills on most of cable, kids, so ESPN would cost you a whole heck of a lot more than Outdoor Life Network if all channels were optional), it makes perfect sense in commercial-free music.

Off the top of my head, I can rattle off maybe 20 channels (music and not music) on Sirius that I”m passionate about. I”m real passionate about a few (Underground Garage, Outlaw Country), but probably 60% of the music channels hold zero interest for me. Give me ESPN radio, etc. plus my favorite channels, and I can come up with 50 that”ll do me just right.

Of course, low take rates for those non-mainstream stations I like could spell doom for them, but I still hold my opinion that somebody looking for crap Top 40 or mainstream country ain”t the one looking to pay a monthly fee for music.

It”s good to see my buddy Dave and the Imagination Movers getting another step closer to kid rock (not Kid Rock) superstardom with the debut of a new set of videos on Playhouse Disney. The videos are a precursor to the TV show in development with Disney, and the Mouse influence is evident with slicker production values.

Some enthusiastic Movers fan (me) has posted the new videos up at YouTube (note to Disney … it”s for the purpose of promoting your new act, so embrace it, please). Vids and notes:

Imagination Movers Theme

This video gives a glimpse inside the Idea Warehouse set for the TV show and sets the tone for the band and the series.

Mover Music

The mac daddy new Movers video. Choreographed by one Trish Sie, who did a couple of neat little videos for her brother”s band - OK Go. You know, treadmills and all that. Wins herself a Grammy and follows up with doing an Imagination Movers video. Not shabby.

Shakable You

Big David Byrne jackets …

Seven Days A Week

Not an Irish drinking song … but close.

Farm

This one may be my favorite song and video of the bunch. You can”t lose with an ornery pig (what is that, a Razorback??) and “The roosters … the roosters … the roosters are tired!”

An interesting dynamic of the Disney stuff is that they cut what are full-length songs down to 60-second and 90-second video versions (you can check the 60-second versions here). Having had a chance to see some of the full-length videos, it”s too bad that they have to get cut down, since there”s some actual good songwriting and instrumentation going on here. But that”s life in the big media world, I suppose.

In any case, nice to have Disney putting the machine behind the Movers.

OK, so now the deal is done for merging my fabulous Sirius Satellite Radio with the crappy XM Radio. There are lots of issues to be resolved: regulatory, technical and operational. But the biggest issue in my mind is programming. I”ve said many times that XM music programming sucks. Because it does. I know this even better now after having it free in my new car for three months.

To put it most simply, XM is largely music you would hear on crappy regular radio, just without the commercials (most of the time). Sirius programming is much more interesting and on the fringes of genres the service explores. XM is more mainstream, and that”s what concerns me. The easy choice is to dump the Sirius niches and go for the dumb masses.

And with both companies relying on distribution through new car sales, the consumer hook isn”t primarily the music choices, it”s no commercials and that fact that your new car came with XM or Sirius installed.

So I”m not hopeful. But in the spirit of positive thinking, I”d like to offer my suggestions for what make sure to keep in a Sirius / XM combined lineup:

Sirius:
BBC Radio 1
Elvis Radio
First Wave
Hair Nation

Underground Garage
The Who Channel
Sirius Disorder
BackSpin
Outlaw Country

XM
um … yeah, I got nothing. Keep their Top 40 crap, I guess. Any channel that doesn”t require a personality can come from XM.

Sirius really should just wipe XM”s entire music lineup, because it”s inferior to Sirius across the board. News and talk is largely shared (ESPN, Weather Channel and the like), and as long as they keep at least one Trucker Channel, I”ll be happy there.

Sports programming will be better because there won”t be two services splitting leagues and conferences (although Sirius already carries SEC football, so again it”s fitting my needs just fine), but beyond listening to the rare LSU game that”s not on TV or listening to pre-game, I don”t care that much about live sports. I don”t listen to a lot of live hockey or NASCAR on the radio.

Howard Stern, Oprah, Opie & Anthony? I really don”t care. But the prospect of XM”s grating “Oprah and Friends … Friends and Oprah …” jingle being on my service might just make me cancel it.

Will the deal ultimately go through? I think it will. Sirius and XM have a good case in the idea that HD Radio, iPods, etc. represent the new competition for satellite radio, so combining the two satellite radio services won”t impact the choice in consumer music services. And without a merger, it”s likely one of them would end up in bankruptcy anyway, so the economic reality is that a combination is best for the companies and ultimately consumers.

Just choose your stations wisely, Mel.

Here”s a cure for my “too busy to offer Wisdom” thing … post up YouTube videos I come across.

This is a great find - The Replacements doing Careless at a Twin/Tone showcase show in 1981. Yes, 1981. Tommy Stinson at 15, etc.

Really longtime readers of The Wisdom (I”m talking Dec. 03 here) will recall my plea for the entertainment industry to put my long-lost TV music treasures out on DVD.

The industry, of course, has not done much to expose the Long Tail of content to the masses. The Internet, however, is starting to come through. Cruising the RSS feeds tonight, BoingBoing pointed me to a super swell clip of Stevie Wonder doing “Superstition” on Sesame Street way back in the day. Yes, Stevie rocked the muthafuckin Street. Truly a musical treasure.

And it got me thinking … has YouTube helped bridge my lost-treasure gap?

I figured the best thing to look for was some of the old R.E.M. They used to be popular, after all. And, sure enough, the clips of their first Letterman appearance were posted:

Radio Free Europe

So. Central Rain

Fantastic.

I”ve just started to scratch the surface, but I”m seeing good stuff. Yeah, I know … YouTube, moron - where you been? Fact is, I”ve become so dependent on RSS for my view into the world, I rarely spend time hunting around. But now … I”m hot on the trail of some treasures.

I”d suggest checking out this Plugz clip from New Wave Theater, but I”ll leave you with an embedded treat: R.E.M. on Nickelodeon. Only one of the songs is posted, but it”s my Holy Grail.

Really longtime readers of The Wisdom will recall that nearly three years ago I predicted big things for my pal Dave and his cohorts in The Imagination Movers.

I really haven”t mentioned much here about it, but things are really moving for the Movers these days. Namely, a music and TV deal with Disney that will put the boys on the national stage here soon.

And I hope for huge things for them. In five years, I”d like to see Dave taking over the mortage at Master P”s place in Country Club of Louisiana. I talk to Dave a good bit these days and he fills me in on behind-the-scenes Movers stuff. There”s plenty of “can you believe this” sort of TV/music stars-to-be sort of stuff, but this ain”t Defamer, so I keep the tales to myself.

But since this little tidbit was in the Times-Picayune today, I guess I can throw it out there:

Popular local kids band the Imagination Movers, newly signed to a TV and record deal with Disney, spent Saturday discussing possible collaborations with renowned funk and pop producer Nile Rodgers. Rodgers, the guitarist in disco-era favorites Chic, has produced hit albums by Madonna, David Bowie, the B-52s, INXS and Duran Duran. The Movers hosted Rodgers for a daylong get-to-know-you visit in New Orleans, taking him on the “disaster tour” of their ruined Lakeview homes and to lunch at Bayona. “We talked shop, to see if there is any reason to collaborate,” Mover Rich Collins said. “He”s insanely successful, but his MO is to be intellectually curious. So he”s always thinking about different projects.”

Nile Freaking Rodgers! The man who gave the world “Like A Virgin”.

Not too long ago, I was picking up trash cans and traffic cones to help them put together an Atlanta gig, and now they”re lunching with Nile Rodgers at Bayona.

Well done.

[editor”s note: If you actually read the T-P article I linked to and check out the Bayona photo, you might get the impression that Dave”s not really in the band. But he is. Trust me. As someone never actually said: “I am a Goad!”]